A cart is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair

of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from a
dray or wagon, which is a heavy transport vehicle with four wheels and typically two or more
horses, or a carriage, which is used exclusively for transporting humans.

Over time, the term "cart" has come to mean nearly any small conveyance, from shopping carts
to golf carts or UTVs, without regard to number of wheels, load carried, or means of propulsion.

The draught animals used for carts may be horses, donkeys or mules, oxen, and even smaller
animals such as goats or large dogs.

Contents
 1 History
 2 Types of carts
 3 Gallery
 4 See also
 5 References
 6 External links

History

Hand-propelled wheel cart, Indus Valley Civilization (3000–1500 BCE). Housed at the National
Museum, New Delhi.

Carts have been mentioned in literature as far back as the second millennium B.C. The Indian
sacred book Rigveda states that men and women are as equal as two wheels of a cart. Hand-carts
pushed by humans have been used around the world. In the 19th century, for instance, some
Mormons travelling across the plains of the United States between 1856 and 1860 used
handcarts.[1]

The history of the cart is closely tied to the history of the wheel.

Carts were often used for judicial punishments, both to transport the condemned – a public
humiliation in itself (in Ancient Rome defeated leaders were often carried in the victorious
general's triumph) – and even, in England until its substitution by the whipping post under Queen
Elizabeth I, to tie the condemned to the cart-tail and administer him or her a public whipping.

Types of carts

A donkey cart used in the Gambia

Cart to carry the victims of the 1813-1814 plague in Malta, at the Żabbar Sanctuary Museum

Tourist carts in Petra Siq (Jordan)

Carts from different Malay regions, exhibited at the Muzium Negara.

Kids in hand cart. Leh, Ladakh, India

Larger carts may be drawn by animals, such as horses, mules, or oxen. They have been in
continuous use since the invention of the wheel, in the 4th millennium BC. Carts may be named
for the animal that pulls them, such as horsecart or oxcart. In modern times, horsecarts are used
in competition while draft horse showing. A dogcart, however, is usually a cart designed to carry
hunting dogs: an open cart with two cross-seats back to back; the dogs could be penned between
the rear-facing seat and the back end.

The term "cart" (synonymous in this sense with chair) is also used for various kinds of
lightweight, two-wheeled carriages, some of them sprung carts (or spring carts), especially those
used as open pleasure or sporting vehicles. They could be drawn by a horse, pony or dog.
Examples include:

 cocking cart: short-bodied, high, two-wheeled, seat for a groom behind the box; for
tandem driving[2]
 dead cart to carry victims of the plague[3][4]
 dogcart: light, usually one horse, commonly two-wheeled and high, two transverse seats
set back to back
 donkey cart: underslung axle, two lengthwise seats; also called pony cart, tub-cart
 float: a dropped axle to give an especially low loadbed, for carrying heavy or unstable
items such as milk churns. The name survives today as a milkfloat.
 governess cart: light, two-wheeled, entered from the rear, body partly or wholly of
wickerwork, seat for two persons along each side; also called governess car, tub-cart
 ralli cart: light, two-wheeled, horse-drawn, for two persons facing forward, or four, two
facing forward and two rearward. The seat is adjustable fore-and-aft to keep the vehicle
balanced for two or four people.
 stolkjaerre: two-wheeled, front seat for two, rear seat for the driver; used in Norway
 tax cart: spring cart, formerly subject to a small tax in England; also called taxed cart
 Whitechapel cart: spring cart, light, two-wheeled, especially for family or light delivery
service[5][6][7]
 Pushcart, a cart that is pushed by one or more persons:
o Baggage cart, pushed by travelers to carry individual luggage
o Serving cart, also named pushcart or go-cart is a hand-cart used for serving:
 Food cart, a mobile kitchen that is set up on the street to facilitate the sale
and marketing of street food to people from the local pedestrian traffic.
 Food service cart, also named serving trolley, for serving the food in a
restaurant
 Pastry cart, for serving pastry
 Tea cart, also named teacart, tea trolley and tea wagon, for serving tea or
other drinks